


Protego

by Written_On_The_Trees



Series: The Trees' October 2020 Writing Challenge [16]
Category: Yungblud (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, F/M, Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, October Prompt Challenge, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:01:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27063832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Written_On_The_Trees/pseuds/Written_On_The_Trees
Summary: Day 16 of my 31 October Writing Prompts. Prompt:Wizard.It's hard being a muggle-born wizard at Hogwarts at the moment, since the school's been taken over by pureblood-supremicists, but Dom's determined to do his best to carry on as normal. Thankfully, he has help.
Relationships: Dominic Harrison | Yungblud & Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Trees' October 2020 Writing Challenge [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949572
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Protego

Dom looked both ways before exiting the Hufflepuff common room.

Hogwarts wasn’t as safe as it used to be. Inside his house’s common room, he wasn’t in any danger; Hufflepuffs were inclusive by nature, but the rest of the school? Not so much. The place was being run by bloody Death Eaters, and even if Snape had ‘officially’ ordered that no students were to be targeted for unnecessary punishment, the Carrows had decided that people muggle-born - _or a mud-blood, as they constantly spat at people who weren’t from wizarding families_ \- was enough reason for a punishment to be _‘necessary’_.

And Dom was muggle-born.

Muggle-born, and rapidly becoming aware that nowhere other than the Hufflepuff common room and dorms were safe. If it wasn’t the Carrows, it was the children of the Dark Lord’s Death Eaters, and if it wasn’t either of those two, then it was whichever student was looking to get on the Carrows’ good sides by throwing a bit of abuse at students who couldn’t (or weren’t allowed to) fight back. Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, it didn’t matter - generally it was only Hufflepuffs that could be trusted, and even with some of them, Dom wouldn’t want to be around without his other housemates, just in case. There were exceptions to every rule, after all.

_Including the idea that most Gryffindors held that_ all _Slytherins were on the side of the Carrows and the Dark Lord._

“Good morning, Harrison.”

Turning round, Dom smiled when he saw who’d spoken out to him.

He was always happy to see Delphine Prewett. She was Slytherin’s star student, the embodiment of everything they wanted a witch to be. Powerful, smart and sly, beautiful and elegant, and - _perhaps most importantly to the people who decided what the embodiment of a Slytherin witch was_ \- a Pureblood. She was popular, got top marks in all her classes, was an immediate choice to be made a Prefect in her fifth year, and had been Slytherin’s Quidditch Captain until she stepped down to be Hogwarts Head Girl at the beginning of this year.

When Delphine walked through the halls, the crowd parted like the Red Sea. When she spoke, rooms went quiet. When she made up her mind, _no-one_ tried to change it.

And she’d decided that she liked _him_.

She was the best the school had to offer, and she had decided that she liked him.

Dom had gotten so fucking lucky.

With Delphine around, no-one challenged him over his blood status

“Hi, Delphie.”

Delphine didn’t smile at the nickname, but she allowed it, and that alone told Dom she liked it - because if she didn’t, she wouldn’t hesitate to let him know: “I thought we could walk to breakfast together.”

“That’d be great - maybe we could talk about the charms homework? I think I’ve got a good idea but I wanted to see what you thought…”

As always, Delphine was more than happy to listen to Dom ramble about his potions essay. He was no slouch when it came to any of his classes, but he had a tendency to go on tangents. Talking about what he was going to write down - and letting someone tell him when he was getting off topic - was really helpful. Delphine listened patiently as they sat at the Hufflepuff table, buttering slices of toast for both of them while Dom went through how he thought he was going to lay his essay out, writing notes on a scrap of paper about what was he was keeping, what he wasn’t keeping, and any additions Delphine thought might get him some extra marks.

Of course, because of what Hogwarts was like this year, the peace and quiet didn’t last long.

Helena Rookwood, a Ravenclaw student with a Death Eater father, appeared right behind Dom, sneering at him when he turned to look at her, and glaring at Delphine in a mixture of confusion and derision.

“Why are you sitting over here, Prewett? And more importantly, why are you sitting with _that_?”

Delphine looked up at Helena with a cold expression: “I beg your pardon?”

Most people would’ve recognised the icy tone Delphine was using as one of warning and backed down, but although she had the thirst for knowledge that seemed to characterise Ravenclaws, Helena seemed to struggle with retaining important knowledge like what happened when witches like Delphine lost their temper: “Harrison’s a mudblood - and a Hufflepuff mudblood at that. Why on earth would you waste your time sitting with him.”

“I don’t define a person’s worth on things like their house or incidental traits like blood status. After all, you are Ravenclaw and a pureblood,” Delphine sneered: “yet you are completely _worthless_.”

Helena seemed taken aback, her mouth hanging open like a fish. Dom was struck with the urge to tell her she was not a codfish, but he knew better than to antagonise her right now. Delphine was basically untouchable - so if Helena was going to lash out, she was going to lash out at Dom. And given her quick temper, it was pretty likely she was going to end up trying to get back at him for what Delphine had said. Dom didn’t need to upset her any more than she already had been.

As it was, Helena spluttered and glared, slowly went red in the face, but Delphine didn’t take mercy on her by dismissing her. She remained in her seat, looking at Helena with a raised eyebrow, waiting for either to respond or slink away in defeat. But Helena did neither.

Dom grew increasingly nervous as the silence dragged on. With Amycus Carrow watching on with narrowed eyes from his position at the teacher’s table, Dom didn’t dare draw his wand. He was lucky that it hadn’t been taken away by the Ministry yet - if it got confiscated by Amycus, he’d never get it back. Even if Helena drew hers first, Dom would be punished for dueling if he fought back…meaning he’d be relying on Delphine to defend him.

He had no doubt that she could - _probably better than he could defend himself_ \- but that didn’t mean he wasn’t nervous. He waited for something to happen, but the two girls just watched each other over the top of his head, waiting for the other to make their move. The stand-off seemed to drag out forever…

…but then Helena drew her wand.

_“Confri- ”_

_“Protgeo!”_

Delphine rose to her feet - but didn’t draw her wand. She didn’t need to.

_I didn’t know she was so good with wandless magic._

The shield charm was so strong it sent Helena stumbling backwards before she fell onto her arse.

Delphine stood, leaning forwards to brace her hands on the table so she could look down her nose at where the other girl was sprawled inelegantly on the floor, her eyes watering as she looked back up at Delphine and tried not cry.

“Are you finished?” Delphine sneered, not taking it easy on Helena - despite having already beaten her.

“Why are you standing up for him? He’s a mudblood!” Helena wailed.

“And you’re a bigoted cu- ”

“Is everything okay here?”

All three of them turned to look at Alecto Carrow. The short, stocky woman was glaring down at Helena, her face wearing its usual pinched expression.

Helena didn’t wait to be told to get to her feet; all the students knew better than to let either of the Carrows see you down, in case they decided to kick you while they were…literally or figuratively. Even the students who believed in the same rhetoric as they did weren’t safe, especially from Alecto. She liked hurting people, and she didn’t care who her victims were as long as she was infliction pain.

Dom and Helena ducked their heads, but Delphine looked the other woman straight in the eye as she spoke.

“Yes, thank you Professor Carrow.”

“Make sure that it is, Prewett. As Head Girl, there are eyes on you.” Alecto warned: “Make sure you do not disappoint them.”

With that, she strode away, shooing Helena away as she went.

Everyone who had been trying to subtly watch without being caught went back to eating their breakfast. Delphine returned to her seat, but for the first time since they’d become friends in their third year, Dom saw her look shaken. Understandable; the ‘eyes’ on Delphine were the eyes of the Death Eaters interested in recruiting her…but Dom didn’t like it. There wasn’t a lot he could do _(to speak out against the Death Eaters, even where they thought they couldn’t hear you, was a sure way to end up in trouble…or worse)_ but he reached out to take her hand and squeeze it reassuringly.

She returned his comforting smile with a strained one of her own, before taking a deep breath to center herself, and the confident expression of Delphine Prewett was back in place. If he hadn’t been looking just a second ago, he wouldn’t have known it was a mask…as it was, he went along with it. She was just doing what all of them were doing it: faking it until they could make it a reality.

“Well, we’d better get to class. The Head Girl can’t be late, after all.” she smirked.

Dom followed her out, waiting until they were halfway up the stairs to Transfiguration: “I’ve got your back, Delphie. They can’t have you if you don’t want them to.”

It might seem nonsensical to some…but Delphine understood, she always did: “Thanks, Dom. I’ve got yours too.”

“I know.” Dom grinned: “And you look fuckin’ amazin’ doin’ it.”

Delphine smiled: “I know.”

This time, her smile was a lot more genuine.

**Author's Note:**

> So...I missed a day. Whoops.
> 
> I think we all knew it was going to happen - if anything, I'm surprised I lasted over two weeks _(just about)_ before missing anything 😂
> 
> To make up for not posting yesterday I'm going post days 16 and 17 today, so I'm up to date - and to hopefully motivate myself not to be late in the future. Will it work? Probably not, but we're going to go with it anyway!


End file.
